FreeHearts
by Zade Kay
Summary: She was born to die. He already had- Technically. Destiny had a plan, but Kagome was never one to let the current pull her under. She changed it all- She woke him up. He was pissed.
1. Prologue

* * *

_"I have this dream... It's the kind of dream you keep buried within you, deep inside. In it, I'm a normal girl. It hurts to wake up, sometimes."_ -- Kagome

* * *

_"If a man is destined to drown, he will drown even in a spoonful of water." -- _Yiddish proverb

Youkai aren't quite so normal a sight as they once were. The days of being attacked when frolicking alone in the woods by hordes of Youkai have long since been over.

Doesn't mean that it was any safer to frolic.

There were still a great many youkai, nobody actually knows how many, it's been said they've gotten crafty, and that they can walk among humans without anyone turning heads.

It's pretty rare to actually _see_ a youkai. Unless it was one of the rare domestic, docile, slave youkai, kept by one of the more prominent wealthy families of Tokyo. Even then, the youkai looked _almost_ human, and was usually carting around shopping bags, trailing behind its master like a puppy. With dead eyes.

Even rarer than youkai, of course, were sightings of a miko. It had been almost fifteen years since Tokyo had lost the protection of its miko, fifteen years since whatever confidence the city had in its own safety disappeared just as mysteriously as she had.

Mikos were so rare that in the fifteen years (180 weeks, 65565 days) since her disappearance, no replacement miko had been found. In fact, most of the city gave up on ever finding another.

Of course, there were the obligatory checks for miko talent in every newborn girl, but most of the city had come to the conclusion that there would _never_ be another miko.

And so, of course, the youkai began to become bolder. Be fruitful and multiply, and all that jazz. They were far from overrunning the city. But in the back of everyone's minds…

In the dark hopelessness that shrouded the city's heart, we knew.

One day, the youkai were going to slaughter us all.

It was a common sentiment heard throughout the city on any given day; "If only we had a miko.."

And every time I heard it, my heart died in my chest. Because Tokyo had a miko.

I should know. I am that miko.

Higurashi, Kagome. Reporting for duty.

Or.. Not.

Because while the human population of the city would have rejoiced in the knowledge of my existence (with much alcohol, and drunken toasts most likely..), the youkai would have been planning my messy death.

I would have disappeared at some point. Just like Kikyo. The miko before me. And she had been the most powerful miko in countless generations, almost unrivaled.

This was what my grandfather drilled into my head each and every day. No one must know. My family loved me too much to have me taken away from them.

My grandfather, a monk of no little power, although senile as all get out when the moment suits him, and somewhat… fat.. Had been able to see what I was right through the womb. He had felt my gifts, and immediately set to work making ward after ward to paste to my mother's growing belly.

He used everything he had to hide what I was. To protect me.

Because he knew what would happen if I were to become Tokyo's miko. I would be taken from my family as soon as I was outed, taken from my shrine and brought to an institution where I would develop my talents, and my family would never see me again.

I would never get to grow up to be a normal seventeen year old. If I were to grow up at all. My mother and grandfather were terrified that the youkai would find me, as they had undoubtedly found Kikyo, and kill me.

And so, I was a miko without all the talent that comes with the name. I had never even seen proof of the power running through me, although my grandfather told me he could see it through his "freaking eyelids".

And so, while I went to school like every other teenage girl my age, while I had friends, good grades, and homework, you could divide my life in half with a black magic marker.

One half being normal, school-going Kagome. The other half, the Kagome who had to run home after school every day and begin the process of being warded so no one could figure out what I was.

It felt distinctly… spy-ish. Only without the gadgets and lots of sex.

I never got to go out after school and fool around at the mall. My friends _never_ saw me outside of a school uniform. If it rained, I didn't get to go to school. I always had an umbrella on hand.

Ooh! And thispink poncho with these cute little purple bunnies..

Because the rain could wash off my wards (pasted on with a nice thick glue). Any kind of water would dilute the spells that kept me hidden.

But it worked. No one knew what I was. Not my best friends, only family. And everyday, I had to hear on the news, or over the school announcements, that someone had been killed by a youkai. I had to lose classmates, teachers, neighbors and strangers.

I watched the news religiously, morbidly, to see if anyone had been killed. Because they were all on my conscience. I had as good as killed them.

I was their miko, and I left them to die.

Somehow I couldn't revel in day-to-day survival, or a normal life, or time with my family. Because everyday I had, someone else lost.

Life is such a bitch.


	2. Normalcy

* * *

**The best of men cannot suspend their fate: The good die early, and the bad die late.**

**

* * *

**

_"Once.. When I was very little, I remember being safe. Being loved. Being special, but only 'cause I was me. Not 'cause of what I was. Turns out that was a lie. He left. I'm over it."-- Kagome_

* * *

Kagome was dawdling. She was lagging, dilly-dallying, dragging her feet, idling, lingering, straggling, and most of all... She was _rebelling_. 'Cause that's how bad she was.

It felt so good.

Thanks to another of Tokyo's roaming blackouts hitting her school, she had been let out a whole hour early, because all the power in the school had gone out.

And now, she could take as much time as she wanted getting back, possibly stopping to get a bubble-tea and window-shop, before she had to rush home. For once, Kagome was going to get to be one of those girls who got to.. You know, live.

And her grandfather would be none the wiser.

Even though a very small part of her was panicking at the newfound freedom (She may have also adopted agoraphobia, because all the open space and freedom was just shy of giving her a rash on her sensitive parts) and worrying about all the things that could go wrong, the rest of her was feeling distinctly bad-ass.

She blew the bangs out of her eyes and stopped to gawk at the display of pocky set up in a store window. She had to stop when she realized she had pressed her nose against the glass to the point of pain in her sugar-craving. Not to mention she couldn't see through the fog her breath had made.

How much allowance did she have on her?

* * *

Kagome could no longer feel her face. She had ingested so much glucose that she could taste colors. And those colors were so, so, so very sweet. 

She twitched and smoothed out the almost indecent length of skirt over her knees.

Although a part of her felt that deep down twinge of guilt for misleading her mother and grandfather, she beat it into submission with a silent growl. She _deserved_ this.

She needed, just for one day, to be a normal girl. To be selfish and silly, to be frivolous and _unimportant._ She wanted to gawk at clothing and groan at price tags. She wanted to cleanse her mind, at least temporarily, of _duty, _of morals, of _repercussions._

Kagome wanted to be seventeen.

And she wasn't going to feel guilty about it.

Besides, the ofuda, the paste, paper and thick scrawls of kanji smeared all over her abdomen would keep her safe. Just like they had every other day of her life.

There wasn't a rain cloud in sight, and she had her umbrella with her if the weather took a turn for the worse. So the wards weren't about to wash off.

All in all, she was in for a few boring hours of hot, sweet joy.

And then she'd bury it in the recesses of her memory and go back to her strict regiment of mindless, soul-sucking monotony. She would continue _dying _slowly on the inside.

Right now, though. I'm going to nance about on my sugar high, followed by possible frolicking under the sun, and finally I'm going to be sick from all the sweet sugary bliss of normalcy.

Kagome grinned beatifically, saluting the businessman who gave her a sideways glance, and took a kiddy-corner randomly, hopping onto another street.

The sidewalk was suddenly less crowded, and she felt some of the tension ease off her shoulders. After all the years of staying in and rarely straying downtown, she wasn't quite as thick-skinned as the rest of the city to the discomfort of crowds.

She ran her fingers along the streaky glass of a shop window, happily thoughtless, and moved to skirt past the alleyway that bisected the two stores. She had a city girl's distrust of Tokyo's dark places, because everyone knew that what hid in the darkness was not friendly.

Especially for her, being what she was. Because Kagome was always a what, not a who.

Argh, why am I thinking dark thoughts? I'm footloose, fancyfree… I'm a young girl with money in her pocket. Admittedly not much, but money all the same.

There was a slight hiccupping noise to her left. She paused in mid-step. Her head turned of its own accord, and she scanned the alley frenetically.

I imagined that, right?

A slight sniffle issued from somewhere in the dark recesses, she narrowed her focus to the large dumpster locked tight against the left wall.

So she wasn't imagining it. She bit her lip and furrowed her brow with indecision. Should she see if she could figure out what was cowering behind the dumpster, or keep on a'walking?

Common sense was screaming at her to walk her ass on out of there like a good little girl, but Kagome had the common sense of a lemming.As a rule.

She took a step forward, not entering the alleyway, but hovering at the mouth.

I will not go into the dark alley. I will not go into the dark alley. I will not--

The whimper sent a shiver through her heart, and she took an involuntary step forward, the shadow the buildings cast reaching out to enfold her.

Symbolic…

"Hello? Is someone there?" she hissed, suddenly very self-conscious.

When she realized what she was doing, she groaned. _Smart, Kagome. Real freaking intelligent. I can see the headlines; young schoolgirl dies after being lured into a dark alleyway like a lamb to the slaughter. This is the part of the horror movie where everyone yells 'don't go into the alley, you stupid girl. Run, bitch, run!'_

She fidgeted with the straps of her backpack and made a decision. She was _not_ going to be murdered today. Kagome made to turn when a sudden movement drew her attention back to the alley with an audible snap of the vertebrae in her neck.

A slight rasping noise, and then a small, tousled boy stepped into her line of sight. His school uniform was smudged randomly with dirt, his school tie askew and his shaggy raven hair hanging in her face.

A face she knew.

"_Sota?!"_ she growled, her voice tinted with that exact shade of older sister tone mixed with bewilderment. "What the _hell _are you doing downtown all by yourself?! Does Mama know-- Of course not. She would never.. You're so dead."

Her mind whirled and ticked with thoughts of what could happen to a ten year old boy all on his own in urban Tokyo, especially a boy who was farting about in an _alleyway_ for the love of--

Sota's shoulders hunched forward, and his head dropped, shaggy bangs shading his eyes from her intense gaze.

"Don't pull that look on me! I can't believe _you._ This is serious Sota, I mean it. You could have been-- bad stuff." she fisted her hands against her hips and stamped into the alley until she was only a few feet from him.

His head dropped even further, until his chin was nearly resting on the collar of his mussed school shirt. He took a shuffle-step forward, drawing Kagome's furious attention down to his left foot.

She immediately lost the strand of her angry tirade when she noticed how his foot hung limply, parallel to the pavement, twisted awkwardly.

"Sota..?" She faltered.

He wobbled dangerously on his good foot, and she realized that he was holding all his weight on the right one.

Oh God..

She threw herself at him, landing on her knees in front of him and taking most of the skin off her knees in the process. She barely noticed.

Kagome grabbed his shoulders and dug her fingers into the muscle there as her eyes danced over his small frame frenetically. When she failed to notice another injury on the skin she could see, she pulled him into her arms desperately, crushing him to her chest protectively.

"Sota, Sota, Sota…" she murmured frantically. _Please be okay._

The muscles in her abdomen tightened as something unfamiliar _twanged_ through her suddenly. She stopped running her fingers through Sota's hair to check for lumps or _scalp wounds_.

In fact, she froze. Something in the back of her mind was whispering to her fiercely.

That isn't--

"You aren't my little brother," she pulled back from the embrace and stared at the boy in her arms.

Bright green eyes met hers sadly and she was sure. Sota didn't have green eyes. "Sorry." he agreed.

Something thumped behind her, and she half-turned, spurred on by another pang of wrongness in her belly.

"What'd I tell you? Make 'em think one of their pack is injured, and they lose all sense." the tall, slim youth gestured at her vaguely.

No! This was all because she had decided to be footloose and fancy-free for the first time in her whole freakin' life! Why did fate hate her so very much?!

"Yeah, whatever. Where's my money?" the boy in her arms shook, like a wet dog coming in from the rain, and suddenly he wasn't wearing her brother's face anymore. Green eyes glared over her shoulder from a pointed face.

Kagome stared at the telltale lengthened, pointed ears, the faint glint of pointed canines, the shaggy auburn hair, and came to the bright conclusion that the boy wasn't _human._

Clever gal.

Then she craned her head back to study the teen behind her. He also had that glaring not-quite-human look to him, with, under any other circumstance _pretty freakin' amazing_ silver-white hair that fell to down his back even longer than her own.

Gold eyes narrowed with bemusement met hers for a split second, like liquid amber (and she was _trapped_ in them), before pulling back to the youkai faintly hissing at him from within her grip. His eyes flickered even still with something she couldn't identify.

He lifted his chin subtly and sniffed the air, then snapped his attention back to the young not-boy.

And.. _Oh my._

Twitching dog ears perched on top of his head.

And so what if a small part of her squee'd with tremulous joy?

The rest of her was still very firm in its declaration of being so very screwed. She teetered on her knees.

They found me.

This would teach her to rebel. Although, it was hard to learn a valuable lesson when you were in meaty chunks on the sidewalk after being torn to pieces. Her grandfather would probably yell at her chunks. 'I told you so!' and so forth.

The youkai gently tugged her numb fingers from his 'asthma is sexy!' t-shirt and patted her hand reassuringly, like she wasn't at least seven years older than him and _about to be murdered in a dark alley._

The teen made a vague snorting noise and dug two fingers into his jeans pocket, making a face, and dug out a handful of bills.

"Little bastard." he grumbled, tossing the wad with surprising accuracy at the young boy.

"Thank you kindly." the youkai child grinned, exposing some nasty fangs, and the money disappeared with little warning.

"Now scamper off, little fuck-face. I have business with the little lady."

Kagome didn't like the sound of that. _Don't leave. Leaving is bad._


	3. Sleeping

A/N: See? I can update! Just.. Sparingly. And.. _Christmas_.

* * *

**Fate:**  
Whatever is destined or inevitably decreed for one.  
Synonyms: circumstance, destiny, doom, kismet, lot, portion, weird.  
**- Webster's Electronic Thesaurus**

* * *

_"He's soft. Like a puppy made of playdoh. Except he has a razor blade in the middle. In case kids want to play with him." -- Shippo, on Inuyasha._

* * *

"You're not going to.. Hurt her right? 'Cause you said you just needed to talk to her." His nose wrinkled faintly, and Kagome felt like she might have more than a snowball's chance of hell of not being killed, raped, maimed, or.. Well those made the top three right now.

"Right. I want to talk to her. I'm also going to rescue all the stray puppies and kittens and we'll all get high on life and parade down the streets of Tokyo." He drawled, face deadpan.

And Kagome died. Metaphorically, of course.

Because in reality she was still alive for the scant seconds she had left.

"That sounds nice, but I really have to be getting-- _Uhn._" He turned a knife-edge amber glare on her and her stomach again quailed with that pang of _wrongness_. Maybe this was one of her miko gifts being birthed?

Was running an option?

Someone nailed my feet to the pavement when I wasn't looking. Or I'm waa-ay too much LSD to function.

Besides, her only exit was being blocked by death in a black t-shirt and worn jeans.

So.. No.

"You can't hurt her. You.. You can't." The youkai bared his little teeth, and brought his fists up in front of his chest.

The teen smirked, showing his own rather sharp canines, which made the young youkai's fangs seem _slightly_ less dangerous.

"Really?" He darted forward suddenly, grabbing Kagome by the scruff of her school blouse and pulling her up off the ground. "'Cause I can't see anything stopping me."

Kagome made a noise of protest as her shirt hem tugged out of her skirt and the collar of her shirt pressed against the column of her throat. She coughed less than lady-like, issuing an angry wet gurgle. Her feet dangled above the pavement and one of her brown loafers fell off her foot to sweet freedom.

Ow! Her vision went grey at the edges.

She was in awe of how strong he was. Sure, she had heard the stories of youkai strength, like everyone else, but having that same legendary strength hoist her up like a wrinkly puppy by the scruff of your neck had a frightening effect on her.

"Anyway, I like violence. It makes me all melty inside." He purred, shaking her a few times to give credence to his statement.

"Gukkkk--" Said her abused throat, possibly protesting, possibly being crushed to wet powder.

That did not bode well for her. In fact, it boded very _badly._

A hand snuck into her peripheral vision to tear her fingers away from her throat. She squeaked at the sudden return of pressure against her windpipe before she felt her feet, one socked, one shoed, touch ground again.

Kagome sucked in a great lungful of air with subdued relief, and then went rigid when her wrists were caught in one clawed, _clawed!_, hand and pinned together with bone squelching force.

Oh right--! I'm still about to die..

There was a faint squeaky growling from her lure-turned-protector in protest.

"I thought I told you to leave, scruffy pup." Her captor's growl was definitely more intimidating. It rumbled up through the soles of her feet, and through the iron grip of his skin on hers at her wrist. It made all her nerve endings quail and tingle in fear.

"No! You broke our deal! I said I would get her in here, but only if you were just going to talk to her! You told me she wouldn't be hurt!" His slim body quaked with a mixture of fear and courage, and she was reminded of a small animal confronting a predator.

It was a very apt analogy.

"Well I lied. Tough shit. Now, you can either scamper, or I can knock your head off that wall until you get dead or unconscious, whichever comes first. I don't have time to deal with your little hero act right now, kid." He clamped her pinned wrists around her side and to his side with one hand.

She attempted to tug loose, giving it everything she had. His pinky finger didn't even wiggle.

Self-defense. Self-defense. Grampa gave you lessons for a reason, retard!

Something about a solar plexus. And a sternum. Her grandfather's voice was screaming _"Eye! Groin! Eye, groin!" _in her head, and her brow crumpled in confusion. She couldn't connect the two.

"I--," was as far as the young youkai got before the front of his t-shirt was snatched and he was dragged forward and crushed against Kagome's ribcage. "Mmph!" He cried, his face safely buried in her rumpled shirt.

"I don't fuckin' have time for this." His free hand came around and Kagome flinched violently, pushing herself into him in order to avoid what was obviously going to be a nasty blow to her head. His hand hesitated, his fist clenching spasmodically.

"Please.." She whispered, her back crushed uncomfortably against his gut. Her eyes clenched shut and she sucked in a frightened breath between her teeth. "Don't!"

She hated sounding so pathetic and helplessly girly, but she felt the sudden fear only a girl or a woman can experience. Utter helplessness.

Kagome had no defenses, all her grandfather's drills had come to nothing. If she was hit, she would break. Like a piece of frail porcelain.

"Damnit." He cursed, muttering under his breath. His hand retreated and she waited, trembling.

"You could just let me go, I won't tell anyone. I _swear_. I won't go to the--" Her pleas were cut off with a sharp jab to the side of her throat. She gasped and tugged her head sideways violently, trying to pull away from the fierce pinching on her neck. "Ow!"

What did he do?!

The pain receded slightly and she tugged her hand in a knee-jerk reaction to attempt to clamp her hand over her neck.

Her throat burned with a cold fire and she swayed, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

"This shit is expensive, you should be grateful, bitch." He bit out, his hand clenching painfully on her captive wrists.

"What--?" She managed and panicked at the swell of faintness that reached out for her. Her body quivered in protest.

"Not as fast as a knock to the head, but it does the same job." He tugged her wrists further up to pin them under his armpit, and then he dropped his hand away.

Kagome struggled faintly, thinking that she could free her hands now that he wasn't holding them, but her own weakness was frightening.

He injected me with something!

She swayed in his grip, held up by only her pinned hands, the irony not lost on her.

Fight it, fight it damnit!

There was a sharp gasp from the boy pinned to her front, and she managed to grasp with the failing threads of cognitive thought she had left that he had been injected too.

That hurts. Poor boy. She wondered at the fact that even her thoughts were slurred with a slow awe, her fear falling away finally with her consciousness.

Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheek (_tickly!)_, and she looked down at the cap of scruffy ginger hair with a curious affection. She gave a slow giggle at the sight of the three of them sandwiched together _(sandwich!)_.

A thought occurred to her, rising, struggling, to the surface of the quagmire that was her mind.

"My bur--brother?" She slurred, craning her head with heavy exhaustion to look back at the amber eyes watching her intently.

"How the fuck would I know?" He shrugged negligently.

Kagome let her head drop to her chest, and felt her numb body being tugged up into a loose embrace-like grip. He had picked her up.

Sorry. Can't walk anymore.

Her hand reached out to try and grab at something, someone.. She couldn't remember now. Only, she didn't want to leave someone behind.

"Him." She breathed. "Him too."

There was a sharp string of curses from the chest she was crushed against. Kagome wondered at the steady thump-thump against her cheek.

"I can't. He stays here." He snapped, shaking her in his arms like he was scolding her.

She grunted in protest, coming back from the lure of sleep long enough to open her eyes and glare weakly.

"Him _too!_" She growled gutturally, reaching out for the limp form of the youkai on the pavement.

"Fuck. Mouthy bitch." He hissed between clenched teeth, and then looked down at her with a melty yellow glare that made her want to giggle, only she was _too tired._ "No." He enunciated.

She wondered at the spots of black that swarmed over her vision. Something occurred to her, far too late for it to have made a difference. Kagome would curse herself backward and forward when she was lucid for not thinking of it while it could have been effective.

At that moment however, it was only a clever threat.

"I'll scream." She smiled happily, her mind a roaring vortex of white nothing. It was a good bribe.

He looked as if he wanted to hit her. Badly. Instead he glared, bared his teeth in silent menace, and then tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of flour. She watched her arms dangle by his spine in blank confusion.

Then they were bending over, and she saw another pair of arms dangle by hers.

Hi! She thought to them happily, as the darkness reached up to engulf her.

"--Kill her. Messy._ Later_. Dead." Kagome heard, as she at last surrendered.

* * *

_Interlude_

_(page 365, 'A Brief Guide to Modern-Day Tokyo' )_

* * *

This ain't your mother's Tokyo. Or even your grandmother's. 

(Maybe it isn't ours at all?)

Tokyo has changed drastically since the death of Kikyo, the city's last great miko. In a little over eighteen years, Japan's center made the changes necessary for survival without our Strength.

The city underwent a period of intense mourning, which in fact, still hasn't ended. One can still find the black armbands the city, possibly the world, wore when Kikyo was at last announced MIA, at any major vendor. There are still those old enough to remember the safe days who will paint you a pretty picture with stories of our Strength, of our Salvation.

When it became apparent that the city would fall if drastic changes were not made, Tokyo became the source of its own strength. It is nothing like the protection the miko Kikyo offered, but it is suffice to get us through each day.

The city is protected now, of course, by the militia. What monks that have survived the Great Purging are an integral part of the militia's force. Their spiritual powers are meager when compared to the power of a Great miko, but is still vital.

Tokyo is now a less culturally-bound city. There are those who are displeased with the changes in morality, the changes in the very appearance of the city, but the force for change will not be stopped.

There was a day when it was a very rare sight to see any overt displays of public affection. Now, it is not unusual to catch teenagers groping in the street.

Perhaps we are entitled. So many die each day now, that modesty has literally gone out the window. Love is a newly looked upon coin. If the chances that you may never see a loved one again are steadily gaining, than, there are those that argue, why not love while you can.

But while love, perhaps better named lust, is seen more often, then joy is dying a slow death.

How often do we see a smile from our fellow citizens anymore? Or a friendly greeting? Instead, it is left to the children to pick up the fallen pieces of Tokyo's life, and smile, and play, and laugh…

It is only the young who retain Tokyo's spirit now.

They are the only ones who live life regardless. Who retain a social life, laughing in the slowly degenerating malls of Tokyo, as the young are wont to do.

It is our sincere hope that they can keep Tokyo alive.

Or we will have lost.


	4. Hotel Bathtub

The first thing that drifted on the muddy surface of Kagome's consciousness was that she was numb. Like her entire body had fallen asleep, and she was consumed with pins and needles that came in waves.

Her ribcage hurt,and she could sense, just barely, that she was lying on her side. All her weight was crushing her ribs into a flat, cold, and impossibly _hard_ surface. Her cheek was cushioned on her right wrist, the weight of her head sandwiching her arm between it and the floor.

Finally she managed to figure out which limbs were which, had followed the owner's manual and discovered where her face was, and her eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks lazily. She called them dirty names behind their backs when her eyelids remained shut.

"Jeeze..." She cleared something disturbing out of the back of her throat, mind still murky and thick like the sinister herbal remedies her grandfather made and forced down the throats of his loving family with glee. Fear and confusion pawed angrily at her abdomen and heart like a frustrated kitten, but she pushed them away in favour of focusing on more pressing things.

Like how scummy the inside of her mouth was. Her tongue was literally welded to the roof of her mouth, and her teeth needed a vigorous brushing before they stopped tasting like cotton.

Stretching with a groan,and wincing at the feeling of dozens of joints and bodily paraphernalia readjusting with ominous pops and crackles, Kagome tried to open her eyes. It took so much effort to figure out how one went about operating eyelids, that she almost gave up and went back to the warm, sleazy embrace of sleep.

When she managed to crack her left eye open, she stared into the nothingness for a long moment before she shut it again. Taking a long moment to reaffirm her religion, she opened both eyes.

_Darkness._ It was all-encompassing. As in the exact opposite of friendly sunlight, chirping birdies, and trees swaying cheerfully in the wind outside your bedroom window.

She took a deep breath through her nostrils, licked her cracked and bleeding lips, shifted herself into a comfortable position, curled and unfurled her body like a great cat, counted to ten (backwards, forwards and then by spelling out the numbers in chronological order and giving them names). When those things didn't work, she sucked in a lungful of air and began to scream as the panic closed in.

Kagome didn't much like the dark.

* * *

Inuyasha was lazily sucking at his left fang in favor of foregoing a toothbrush when it began. A horrible, reverberating shriek that had his ears diving for cover against his head like the big cowards they were, and his left eye twitching in time to the ringing in his ears.

He pivoted on the bed, pulling away from the wall to stare at the bathroom door in disbelief. His brain had melted into slag and then the mushy wetness sat in his skull and fervently reminded him of how much it disliked _that particular noise._

"Ow." New curse words were brought into existence and then died on his tongue. He turned to the bed adjacent to his and pointed at Miroku violently. "Fix it!" He gestured at the bathroom door with one clawed finger, his eye still twitching violently.

Miroku pulled his fingers out of his ears and sighed. "Guess she's awake.." He turned off the television and got up with a groan and a stretch as the wall across the hotel room began to vibrate angrily. Someone thumped the wall with a fist.

"Hey! Shut the hell up in there! You're ruining the _mood_, assholes!" said the wall.

Inuyasha threw the alarm clock on his nightstand at it. "Go to hell. There's no one in there but you and your fist." He growled and clamped his hands over his ears. _Noise. Bad. _The screaming picked up a new crescendo, and the sudden optimism that she would pass out from lack of oxygen comforted him immensely.

The beige wall answered sulkily and stopped thumping. "Exactly."

Miroku squared his shoulders, took a moment to pat the pockets of his worn jeans before he opened the bathroom door.

The volume increased and joyfully carved initials on the inside of Inuyasha's skull. He swore and followed Miroku into the bathroom, because the noise had to _stop._

Miroku jabbed the switch with his thumb and they both waited for the florescent bulb to stop flickering, mostly for Miroku's benefit, because Inuyasha could already see the source of the problem.

The school girl was lying on her side, facing them, in the bathtub. Her face was buried in her arm, which didn't seem to be muffling the volume of her cries at _freakin' all._ Raven hair fell into her face, the long fringe of her hair covering her eyes, and showing only the faintest hint of the black strip of fabric that was wrapped over her eyes.

"What the hell did you blindfold her for? Did you think she wouldn't figure out she was in a bathroom? I mean, the tub is a red herring, I agree.. But she looks clever, this one." Miroku raised an ebony eyebrow and scratched at a spot on his chest while they both examined the girl with morbid fascination.

"I shoulda gagged her too. This girl's got some hella good range." Inuyasha shook his head to throw off his stupor and he leaned over the tub and flicked her in the nose, hard.

Her mouth closed with an audible _clack_ as her teeth cracked together. Both males winced in sympathy involuntarily at the sound. She shuddered and pulled her face out of the crook of her arm, pushing herself into a half-sitting position awkwardly with bound hands. Her face turned to them, blindly searching them out through the blindfold.

The hanyou stared. "Creepy..."

The teenager made a noise in the back of her throat. "Can someone turn the lights on, _please?_" She croaked, shivering in an obvious reaction to fear.

"They are on, moron. You're blindfolded." Inuyasha smirked, and jabbed at the fabric, most likely poking her in the eye in the process.

She pulled back from him, making a noise that indicated that was very probably what he had done and tried to push the blindfold out of her eyes with her shoulder. "That makes sense, I was wondering why my watch alarm kept beeping suppertime if it was pitch black."

Miroku decided he liked her instantly, and that they would bond well. Hopefully in passionate, dirty ways, and repeatedly. His violet eyes drifted to the expanse of pale skin her skirt did _nothing_ to hide. '_Scandalous.' _

Inuyasha watched her fumble with the blindfold for a long moment before the amusement faded into boredom and then impatience took hold. "Here, idiot. You need hands to move that."

"Oh right, _hands._ Why didn't I try that earlier, instead of trying to jimmy it off with my shoulder blade like a stroke victim?" She gestured limply with her hands, showing the plastic zip tie that bound them, and nearly falling over in the process as they were all that was holding her up. She sat, fidgeting nervously as Inuyasha fumbled with his own handiwork.

"Damn.. Freakin'.. Knot..," he pulled at the cloth angrily, forcing a yelp from the girl as the fabric both bit into her eyes and pulled the strands of hair caught in the knot. "Who tied this thing?"

"You did. Do you need help?" Miroku moved forward to offer his skills but Inuyasha slapped his outstretched hand away. "Alright then."

"Back off! I _got_ it." He ignored the girl's chorus of "Ow's" and then gave up with a growl and just worked a claw underneath the fabric and sliced through it neatly. Amber eyes flashed with amusement as she went shock-still at the foreign feeling of something so obscenely sharp sliding over fragile skin and muscle. The blindfold fell to her lap in a heap, laying over her thigh in a pile of torn fabric.

She reached for it, looking mechanical and unthinking, and fingered the severed edge that Inuyasha had created, mouth parting softly with fear or awe, he couldn't tell which. It was immensely gratifying to his ego. Like a pat on the back, "Well, done. Jolly good."

"There's not even any frays..." She mumbled, apparently unaware that she was speaking aloud.

His mouth stretched into an even larger self-satisfied smirk.

"And here's the part where he tears of his shirt to show you rippling muscles and battle scars, and recounts his glory days... Don't encourage him." Miroku scolded, drawing the attention, rightfully, to himself.

She blinked, then her attention slid off of him like he hadn't even spoken and stormy eyes roamed over the stark scenery of the bathroom. Her eyes returned to them after a long period of awkward silence. She cleared her throat and looked at her hands, wiggling the fingers which had gone white from the force of her grip on the tub floor.

"So... When are you going to kill me?" She started softly, her voice cut out faintly, and she cleared her throat and asked again-- this time sounding uninterested and disconnected. Completely at odds with the fine tremor that ran through her like an electric current.

Miroku blinked, looking confused, and Inuyasha only folded his arms over his chest, looking bored.

* * *

Kagome worked on returning feeling to her hands, hoping it would distract her from both the residual fear that still held on from being alone, _in the dark_, and the terror that rose like a tidal wave to bury her beneath foaming, heaving water. She felt nauseous, and hot, and cold, and _tingly._

_'Just kill me and get it over with.. I don't think I can just sit here and think about it any longer.'_

The thought that she might actually _stop living_ struck her, and she couldn't help the spasm that tore through. Her hands were starting to sweat, and her hands made a terrible squeal of friction against the porcelain when she slipped forward and nearly brained herself off the edge of the tub.

"Kill you? Erk. No." The one with the shaggy raven hair shook his head. "You're far too pretty, and I'm far too nice for that." He blew a piece of hair out of his face, then grimaced when it fell directly back into his eye. "I'm Miroku, and this cheerful guy is Inuyasha, by the way."

Kagome glanced up, hope dawning on her features like a physical light. "No.. Dying?" She managed, surprised she could be coherent when her mind was dancing the rumba in sweet, sweet joy. _'Life!'_

And then--- Everything hit the cusp of the cliff and fell, landing in a messy heap of gore at her feet. Because _people_ weren't just kidnapped by youkai and then released with a pat on the bum for good luck. And they had shown her their faces! And given names!

Kidnappers only told you their names and let you see their faces when they were pretty darn sure you weren't going to be able to pass that info on.

She said as much. It came out more as, "You liar." She added a glare and furrowing of the brow to make it known that she wasn't stupid. Then, remembering how easily lured into the whole situation she had been, she revised it to '_that_ stupid'.

Inuyasha snorted, tapping claws on the outside of his arm to show how _superior_ to all this he was. "Yep. He's _definitely _lying. We just like to build the hope up and then, BLAM, we kill you. It's this thing we do."

Miroku worked his index and middle finger between Inuyasha's ribs happily and rushed to patch up the situation. "He's so witty. Listen, sweetheart-- What's your name again?"

Kagome narrowed her eyes and began to work on slipping her wrists out of the zip tie, whereupon achieving glorious freedom, she would dance out of the bathroom and be home, possibly in time for supper. _'and Oden!'_

"--Riiight. We're not going to kill you. We're more of a.. collection agency, shall we say-- Yes we shall." He articulated with his hands, parting them benevolently as if he had just eased all her worries.

Inuyasha choked on his spit, and he had to lean on the tub rim for support while he crippled himself with laughter.

Raising a sardonic brow, Kagome blew the hair out of her face and managed not to spit all over her chin in the process. "So you're going to _deliver_ me to the people who are going to kill me, shall we say, yes, let's." She mocked, bitingly.

Her wrists were going purple around the thick plastic that dug into her skin. Knowing she couldn't physically break it (How many times had she tried to remove the stuff from a pair of sandals, and failed? Besides this was much thicker. They'd probably gotten it from Sketchbags R' Us.), so she was going for the wiggle out method.

Miroku frowned, looking put out. "_No._ There will be no killing. None." He watched her struggle with the ties, his face caught in a frown as he worked out the precise wording to reassure her.

She was having none of it. None. Of. It. _'I wonder if they'll take offense if I spit.. This needs some moisture to work, I think. It's too tight to wriggle out of otherwise.' _And Mr. Sketchy and his smug, stabby, giggling compatriot could just go stuff themselves into a carpet and roll off a bridge, and take their reassurances with them.

Inuyasha sucked in a dizzying amount of oxygen and wiped a tear from his eye sentimentally. "Ah. Collection agency. I loves it," He thumped Miroku appreciatively on the back, almost knocking him face-first into Kagome, and then put his business face back on.

There was a small noise from under the sink, issuing from the cabinet. All three turned towards it for a moment, looking oddly synchronized, and then dismissed it collectively as the sink backing up, or some sort of drainage.. thing.

"Well, thanks for the offer, but I'd like to go home now." Kagome grunted and studied the tie to see if she'd gained any ground. Other than her skin looking a disturbing shade of lack-of-blood-flow magenta, progress was pretty much nil. "And I don't care what you're collecting, I like all of my organs, and I'm not down with the sex trade."

Inuyasha looked intrigued, Miroku-- frustrated. "It's not like that." He took a deep breath and visibly pulled himself back to a tenuous plateau of serenity with some effort.

Even Inuyasha looked peeved. Silly girl, why was she so stubborn? They were _nice_ kidnappers with needles.

Giving one last try, Kagome tugged her wrists outwards, trying to get some give out of the unyielding plastic. She yelped when it bit into her skin hard enough to rupture blood vessels, and then slammed her hands down into the tub in frustration. "_Cheese and crackers!" _She swore vehemently when that sent shockwaves of pain through every nerve ending in her hand.

There was a pause in which no one knew how to answer that.

In the silence, while Kagome held back tears of frustration and pain, there came a soft scratching from under the sink.

"Do we have mice?" Inuyasha thumped a foot against the cabinet. "Go away."

A thought niggled at Kagome while she watched the ears on Inuyasha's head twitch with a misplaced awe. She pushed it away and reveled in his distraction to watch them swivel and twitch, catching all the various noises. _'Uhn..'_ She twitched with the completely inappropriate desire to run her fingers over the soft looking fur.

_'Stop it! Remember, this is a youkai. He lured you into an alleyway, slapped you around a little like you owed him money, and then drugged you. You are in his hotel bathtub. You will not squee like a vapid teeny-bopper.'_

"Sounds like a big mouse." Miroku commented, watching with interest.

Replaying the broken memory, bits and pieces were warped and missing, probably due to trauma, was becoming necessary to restrain her fangirl urges. She got to the part where her brother turned into a youkai and demanded money when she realized-- The thought gave up whispering and smacked her upside the head to get her attention--

_'I wasn't the only one he took!'_

"Forget the freaking mouse, would you? Where's the little boy.. youkai you took, jerk!" Hopefully they hadn't dispatched of the boy already, figuring him to be useless or something else killers did.

"Little boy-- Oh! The kitsune. I knew I forgot something." Inuyasha smacked himself in the forehead and then leaned forward to pull the cabinet doors open suddenly.

A bound and gagged kitsune with familiar russet hair came tumbling out with a muffled squeak and landed on his face. Kagome gave a cry of shock and nearly cracked her head off the tub for the second time, completely taken by surprise.

Miroku banged his elbow off the sink, he jumped back so quickly. He covered his heart and grimaced. "Ow. My heart," He gave Inuyasha a look of disgust. "You might want to give a warning next time. And where the hell'd he come from?"

Inuyasha looked amused at the looks on their faces, and Kagome almost suspected him of planning it. "She's a demanding bitch, this one." He jerked a thumb in her direction.

Kagome stared at the kitsune laying on the floor, looking dazed and angry, and vaguely remembered she'd made the youkai take him with them. She'd utterly screwed him... Now he was just as in the hole as she was.

_'Great Kagome, let's ruin everyone's lives, why not?'_

But that was unfair.. There was a very good chance that somebody would have stumbled upon the kitsune's unconscious body in the alley, taking the garbage out or collecting a shipment. And it would have been very nasty from there. Child or not, Tokyo had a very firm policy when it came to dealing with youkai. It was the laws of retribution.

She bit her lip. So, it would take time for them to find out how much damage she had done from this point on.

Kagome came back from her thoughts in time to hear Miroku arguing with Inuyasha over the wisdom of bringing your loose ends home with you, while Inuyasha shrugged and looked apathetic.

She met the wide pair of green eyes that were watching her with what she imagined was the kind of instant bond brought out between two captives. She swallowed and looked away guiltily. _'Sorry.' _

"It's not my fault, she's the bitch who threatened to bring all of Japan down on my head if I didn't take him." Inuyasha threw out defensively, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"Hey now. I have a name. Let's keep it clean." She bit out, glaring at her kidnapper, although her anger almost faded when his hair (_love!joy) _caught the light and turned the silver-white up several frequencies.

_'Shut up, brain!'_

"Yeah, I know. Kagome Higurashi, seventeen, lives on the shrine out in east city, walks the three blocks west to her high school, sits by the cafeteria windows on rainy days, and outside under the trees when its sunny. I know almost everything there is to know about you, _Ka-go-Me. _"

Kagome nearly swallowed her tongue. That made it seem less and less like a random thieving of a teenage girl off the streets, and more like a well-thought out plan that was even more cleverly played out.

_'Why? Please tell me it was a random thing.. And not because they know I'm--'_

Panic grabbed her by the throat, and threw her around a little. If they knew what she was...

The wards plastered to her stomach began to itch right on cue, as if reminding her of what, exactly, she had to hide. _'Well, damn.'_


End file.
